How does God perform thinking?

[tonychanyt]

See How does God perform thinking?

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

Human beings perform reasoning in some stepwise manner. We begin with some facts and derive some other facts by some process of deduction. We assume. we calculate. we deduce, we derive, and we conclude. That is our thinking process.

God is omniscient. He knows everything. He does not think the way we do. Isaiah 55:

8 “For my thoughts are not your thought, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.​

God knows everything. There is no need for God to perform step-by-step analysis the way we do.

And since the soul comes from God does it share that faculty?

 

[tonychanyt]

And since the soul comes from God does it share that faculty?

The faculty of omniscience? No.

 

[atpollard]

Human beings perform reasoning in some stepwise manner. We begin with some facts and derive some other facts by some process of deduction. We assume. we calculate. we deduce, we derive, and we conclude. That is our thinking process.

God is omniscient. He knows everything. He does not think the way we do. Isaiah 55:

8 “For my thoughts are not your thought, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.​

God knows everything. There is no need for God to perform step-by-step analysis the way we do.

God has no need to "think" ... thinking implies using limited information to reach a 'reasonable' conclusion. God KNOWS. God has all the facts. God knows all the possible actions and possibilities. God knows the all the ultimate outcomes. God has nothing to "consider". God has already chosen what will come to be.

The only "logical" alternative is some cause outside of God's knowledge and control ... which must also be an eternal "uncaused cause" and, by definition, another 'god'. Since there are no other 'gods' (GOD is the one and only), there can be no cause that does not originate with God and His control. So GOD does not THINK, God already chose "according to the good pleasure of His will".

 

[Mark Quayle]

Human beings perform reasoning in some stepwise manner. We begin with some facts and derive some other facts by some process of deduction. We assume. we calculate. we deduce, we derive, and we conclude. That is our thinking process.

God is omniscient. He knows everything. He does not think the way we do. Isaiah 55:

8 “For my thoughts are not your thought, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.​

God knows everything. There is no need for God to perform step-by-step analysis the way we do.

God has no need to "think" ... thinking implies using limited information to reach a 'reasonable' conclusion. God KNOWS. God has all the facts. God knows all the possible actions and possibilities. God knows the all the ultimate outcomes. God has nothing to "consider". God has already chosen what will come to be.

The only "logical" alternative is some cause outside of God's knowledge and control ... which must also be an eternal "uncaused cause" and, by definition, another 'god'. Since there are no other 'gods' (GOD is the one and only), there can be no cause that does not originate with God and His control. So GOD does not THINK, God already chose "according to the good pleasure of His will".

There is much said about the way God is and does, in Scripture, that is presented in a form to which we can relate. This is called Anthropomorphism. And it's ok when God does it. But when we do it, we do so ignorantly and presumptively.

For example, while it would be a mistake to say that God does not think, it would also be misleading to say that he does think, because we necessarily take that to mean he is like us. He is not. We are like him, though not very much —at least, not in the ways WE assess.

But yes, you are right. God's state of existence and his very being imply that he doesn't think in the way with which we are familiar with thinking. One way to say this is that God doesn't need to consider, doesn't need to weigh probability, doesn't need to decide, doesn't need to choose, but rather, he just DOES what he does. But like it is with describing the Trinity, the more one says about it, the more the error or misunderstanding.

 

[tonychanyt]

Human beings perform reasoning in some stepwise manner. We begin with some facts and derive some other facts by some process of deduction. We assume. we calculate. we deduce, we derive, and we conclude. That is our thinking process.

God is omniscient. He knows everything. He does not think the way we do. Isaiah 55:

8 “For my thoughts are not your thought, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.​

God knows everything. He is omniscent. There is no need for God to perform step-by-step analysis the way we do.

 

[Mark Quayle]

Agreed. There is reason to believe that for God, to think is the same as to do. My opinion on that is to suppose that God is as much stranger to our way of thinking, as the heavens are above the earth. His existence is of a whole category different from ours, which depends on his.

What gets me is that no matter how good our thinking on this kind of subject, I'm thinking we will figuratively 'smack our foreheads', when we see him as he is, and realize that it has been right in front of our faces all along, how it is so.

 

[GDL]

Another somewhat related question was asked of me years ago while in Seminary; Where does a thought come from?

 

[tonychanyt]

Another somewhat related question was asked of me years ago while in Seminary; Where does a thought come from?

It can come from God, Satan, and self. By "self", I mean the neural network self-programming system taking place in one's brain, 24/7. Think AI

 

[Mark Quayle]

Human beings perform reasoning in some stepwise manner. We begin with some facts and derive some other facts by some process of deduction. We assume. we calculate. we deduce, we derive, and we conclude. That is our thinking process.

God is omniscient. He knows everything. He does not think the way we do. Isaiah 55:


God knows everything. There is no need for God to perform step-by-step analysis the way we do.

That's only part of our thinking process, (I think).

It seems to me anthropomorphic to even ask the question. The Simplicity of God implies that for him to think is the same as to speak is the same as to act. It is we who must separate such things into a process.

He causes it, so he knows it. I tend to think even that it is accomplished fact upon his speaking it, and it is we who must see progression of fact.

 

[GDL]

It can come from God, Satan, and self. By "self", I mean the neural network self-programming system taking place in one's brain, 24/7. Think AI

I suppose we should also add other people, meaning what we read, hear, see from others. And then we should probably add angels and then all created things that we observe with our senses that cause a thought.

Ever notice in our Text that we're said to be body, spirit, and soul, but there is what seems to be a fourth component or possibly a compiled one - a you that has a responsibility for "your" spirit, "your" soul, "your" body? Maybe this is what you're referring to as self (AI) - maybe the flesh (brain) as part of the body - but there is also the concept of "your flesh" - so there's that "you" again. The neural network seems a bit surface compared to the "you" that is being instructed/commanded by God on how to think, speak, act and when learned and teleios can reject and cease a [sinful] thought or initiate and hold a thought of the things above. I don't think I can see the neural network as this "you" component, but this "you" may well be interacting closely with it.

 

[tonychanyt]

I suppose we should also add other people, meaning what we read, hear, see from others. And then we should probably add angels and then all created things that we observe with our senses that cause a thought.

Ever notice in our Text that we're said to be body, spirit, and soul, but there is what seems to be a fourth component or possibly a compiled one - a you that has a responsibility for "your" spirit, "your" soul, "your" body? Maybe this is what you're referring to as self (AI) - maybe the flesh (brain) as part of the body - but there is also the concept of "your flesh" - so there's that "you" again. The neural network seems a bit surface compared to the "you" that is being instructed/commanded by God on how to think, speak, act and when learned and teleios can reject and cease a [sinful] thought or initiate and hold a thought of the things above. I don't think I can see the neural network as this "you" component, but this "you" may well be interacting closely with it.

Right. My definition of self here is not a general one, but only for the purpose of this thread. For a more general idea of self, see What happens to your soul when you die? and follow up there

 

[GDL]

Right. My definition of self here is not a general one, but only for the purpose of this thread. For a more general idea of self, see What happens to your soul when you die? and follow up there

Will look at it.

Even here you've written "your" soul. Who and what is "you"?

 

[tonychanyt]

Will look at it.

Even here you've written "your" soul. Who and what is "you"?

You are always asking good questions

I'd narrow it down as a person's volition faculty. More generally, it is the volition faculty with its associated other faculties. See What happens to your soul when you die?.